The efficiency of China's freshwater fishery breeding: nonparametric data envelopment analysis based on interprovincial data

Studying the economic efficiency of freshwater fishery breeding is of great significance to the sustainable utilization of freshwater fishery resources. Based on the nonparametric research method, this study combines the super-SBM data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with the global Malmquist index (GMI) to evaluate the total factor productivity of freshwater fishery breeding (FTFP) of China from 2004 to 2019, so as to reflect the economic efficiency of freshwater fishery breeding in China. The empirical results show that (1) in general, FTFP has reached the effective level in China with a fluctuating trend in time, but it lacks a breakthrough value. (2) In China, FTFP shows significant differences in space, and its spatial development pattern has gradually evolved from "high in the south and low in the north" to "high in the north and low in the south." (3) The change of FTFP in China mainly depends on technological progress, while the change of scale efficiency and pure efficiency has no significant impact on it. (4) When environmental factors are taken into account, the FTFP value will decrease as a whole. Therefore, it is very important to optimize the structure of freshwater fishery breeding and strengthen the construction of aquatic science and technology system.